Recovery & Change
by Simoman
Summary: Alex is leaving Newport. Forever. Can Seth sway her to stay? ON TEMPORARY HIATUS BUT FEEL FREE TO SEND ME ANY IDEAS YOU HAVE FOR FUTURE CHAPTERS
1. Empty: this chapter by pinkBubblegum123

This is a new story of mine. This first chapter is actually another author's one-shot of a Seth/Alex friendship. I've decided to use it as the foundation for my story. If you know/are the person who wrote this first chapter please let me know so I can quote them.

Warning language is strong in this first chapter so be warned.

Hope u enjoy this chapter.

**Chapter 1: Empty**

Alex stared at the empty apartment with wide, tear-filled eyes. She couldn't believe that she was leaving it, all, everything. The entire life she had built for herself. She bit her lip; hard, and clamped her eyes shut as fresh tears sprung out. She tried to remember when the apartment was full, but she couldn't.

She wanted so badly for Marissa to walk out from their bedroom with messy hair and _that _smile and pull her into a kiss. That's what she would do. But her – _their­_ bedroom was empty. Everything was empty.

She heard three knocks on the door. She knew it wasn't her. Marissa **wasn't **coming back. She'd taken all her stuff out and left right in front of Alex. Alex hadn't helped, and even at times she had fought the urge to through her bags down and scream at Marissa to stay. Because Alex needed her. She _needed_ her.

And, of course, who did Marissa bring to help her move? Ryan. Alex scowled at him every time he passed. He seemed so perfect; she hated the way Marissa talked about him. How Seth talked about him. Like he could make the world perfect. Alex wanted to do that with Marissa, but she couldn't.

Alex wiped her tears away roughly, making the skin under her eyes tinted red. Standing across from her was a confused looking Seth, his soft, little boy face staring at her with questions.

"Here's your money, thanks...What – Where's all your stuff?" he said slowly.

Alex choked back more tears. She **wished** she had fallen in love with him. It would've been so much simpler.

"I'm going back to my parents' place. I," she paused wiping a tear roughly; "I can't stay here. Without...They agreed and all, they were happy. Maybe it's different," she finished, crying harder than before.

Seth shook his head. "You can't. I need you, Alex. Come on, you know that," he said softly.

Alex continued to cry, harder and harder. Seth took the few steps forward and wrapped his arms around her shaking body. Her tears were making his t-shirt wet but he didn't care.

"Fuck her, I don't get it. She seemed so happy and then she just bloody decides that he makes her happier? Why would...I don't get her. I hate her so much. I hate her," Alex said loudly, through tears and aggravated screams.

Seth stroked her soft blonde hair in a comforting way, but he knew he wasn't making any progress.

"I don't want to leave...I want her to stay. I need her, I need her..." she whispered slowly.

Alex looked at him with a heartbroken gaze. Seth suddenly wanted to kiss her. He knew he had Summer, he knew he didn't feel that way about Alex. But he wanted to make her stop. He wanted to stop her from leaving. And he couldn't.

He kissed her on her forehead and she rested her head on his chest. "I won't forget you. She won't," he said quietly.

Alex sniffed and then pulled away from the embrace, still a little teary. "Thank you for...everything. You've really been great. Sometimes a selfish, spoiled little son of a bitch but really great. I hope it works out for you," she said with a slow smile.

Seth let out a light laugh. "Call me, all right? I'm really gonna miss you,"

Alex nodded. "Me too."

Seth pulled her into another hug. Tears slowly were welling up at his eyes, but he held them back for her. "Tell her I said bye, k?" Alex whispered.

Seth nodded and turned around with one last glance. He felt a lump of guilt in his stomach. He had tried to make his life better but he hadn't even considered hers. He turned to apologize, but it was too late. The door was already closed.

Alex took a deep breath and sighed. She tugged on her necklace and threw it into her bag.

She decided that she was just like her old apartment.

It was now empty.

End of Chapter One.


	2. Unexpected Revelations

I was extremely surprised to find 2 reviews to this story just the day after I added it to so thankyou very much to DeuCe628 and Daniela for their great reviews . As a reward to their fast reviewing I have decided to post the newest chapter today.

Hope you all enjoy!

**Chapter 2: Unexpected Revelations**

'So this is it' Alex said to herself. In ten minutes her taxi would be here outside the Bait Shop and she'd be free of Newport Beach forever. The only good thing out of being in Newport was the Cohen's and the outsider Ryan Atwood. Especially Seth.

He didn't mind that she wasn't a typical girl. He was okay with her being different. He got over the fact that she liked both guys and girls. And most importantly he never gave up on her like everyone else did. Even at the end he was still tying to help her get over her harsh rejection even though Marissa was going back to his best friend. For those things and more she could've loved him. She could've been the one for him but she knew she couldn't. That's what Summer was for.

Those ten minutes went by quickly as did most of her brief stay in this weird town of Newport. She heard a car beeping from outside. It was time.

She came outside and grabbed her bags. However before she put her bags in she heard a voice call out to her.

"Alex, please don't leave!"

It was Seth. In that same t-shirt that she'd drowned in her tears. But she knew he could do nothing now.

"Seth forget it. Just leave me. Let me go back to where I belong" was the reply.

"But Alex…"

He was caught off by the sight he saw right in front of him. Right there was Summer and Zach passionately kissing even though she had said they were done.

"Just what I needed" Seth muttered.

"First I find out that another of my good friends is leaving and now the girl I wanted to be with like forever has just gone and cheated in my face. I guess my life keeps getting worse and worse all the time. Not only do I have to put up with Ryan and Marissa now I have to put up being cheated on right in front of me and the real prospect of not another girlfriend for the rest of my life." He said furiously.

Summer heard this racket and released herself from Zach's embrace.

"Cohen did you really think I loved you in the first place? Because if you did then you're sadly mistaken. I just wanted to see what it would be like to date the NERD of the school. It was a dare by Holly (the girl Luke cheated with on Marissa in the First Season) and I accepted it to make it look real. I never really liked you; I've been with Zach the whole time!"

Seth felt like his body had been ripped out and all the contents emptied. He couldn't take it. With tears in his eyes he said

"Sorry Alex but in this state I would only be a hindrance to you. Have a good life out there."

Then turning to Summer

"I hate you so much. No hate doesn't even begin to describe my feelings towards you right now."

"Before I go excuse my curiosity bit if you didn't loose your virginity to me who did you loose your virginity to?"

Summer clearly shocked by the question got up the nerve and replied

"You're looking at him. Three years before you though I know you lost your virginity to me not that it means anything now."

Seth who could clearly take no more of this ran off into the distance. Alex looked up at him. She knew how it felt to be rejected by one you loved. She also knew Seth. She knew she needed to help him now or else something really bad will happen to him like it almost did with her. She was that close to killing herself when she remembered all the good things in Newport and they all seemed to revolve around Seth.

So she walked right up to Summer and slapped her right in the face before sending off on their merry way with a clear message

"You little bitch. How dare you do that to Seth! You are a bloody disgrace! Cant you see what you've done?

"Yeah and" Summer replied in her smart ass way

"You basically just cut out his heart and tore it to shreds in front of him from the way you broke up with him. Are you even human?"

Before Summer could reply Alex went on "And if you ever and I mean ever hurt Seth or his family again in anyway I, Alex Kelly swear on my honour to come after you with so much force that you wished you were dead and being tortured in hell for the rest of your days."

Turning to the taxi driver she payed him before saying to him

"I'm staying here. Tell my parents that my life is here now."

Before handing him a note with her parents address and some more money. He sped off towards her parent's house. Quickly putting her bags back inside she closed the Bait shop before running of in the direction in which Seth had gone.


	3. Where is he?

Thankyou very much to all who have reviewed so far. It was very interesting noting the responses on the last chapter's events. Originally I thought that most would be an outrage to the way Alex treated Summer but instead what the general feedback was completely the other way. All who reviewed said that Summer was a bitch for what she did to Seth and Alex slapping her was simply justice for what Summer had done to Seth.

As a result I am going to conduct a poll for reviewers. When you review if you feel Summer deserves more punishment say that and if you don't want her to receive any more say that. If you say nothing I will regard it as a neither vote.

This is a rare opportunity for you the reviewers to decide what will happen in the future of this story. Note though Summer's punishment won't start until at least chapter five as I have already written the first four chapters which will be posted when a significant number of reviews occurs. So remember to read and review. PLEASE. It only takes 60 seconds of your time if that. And even if you're not a fanfiction member you can still review anonymously. So please do review. Anyways here's the newest chapter.

**Chapter 3: Where is he?**

Where could he be she asked herself. She had been searching for 3 hours and had found nothing so far.

Suddenly she saw a figure in the distance cleaning up a dirty looking boat. It was called the Summer Breeze (and no he didn't sell it at all in my story).

'That must be him' she thought to herself.

Running up to the figure she recognised it was indeed Seth with eyes drained from tears and in the same wet shirt he had on. He was clearly trying to remove the words 'Summer Breeze' but thus far had only removed the S.

"Seth what the hell are you doing?" she asked him.

"Oh hey Alex I thought you'd be long gone by now. I'm just trying to move on by removing the name of my boat since in my idiotic nature I named by boat after you know who."

"Summer" she replied. Somehow she was not at all surprised. She knew he was still hurting so decided to be frank with him.

"Seth, are you okay?"

"Alex do I look okay?"

Seeing her hurt he rephrased it

"Sorry about that its just I thought I loved Summer for like at least 8 years and when she was with me I thought my dreams had come true. But boy I was wrong. To feel what I'm feeling right now take you're hurt over Marissa and multiply it by about 100 and you'll feel like me."

"Ouch" she replied. "That's gotta hurt"

"Yeah it does"

Just then they both heard a song. It was Good Charlotte's Girls & Boys. It was Seth's ring tone.

"Excuse me for a minute" he said before walking a bit and answering the phone.

About five minutes he was back. "Sorry for the wait it's just that was my mum, she wants me home. Also I asked if you could come over and she said yes."

"Seth I couldn't impose..." she started but was again cut off.

"You won't besides when we Cohen's ask there's no such word as no. Now come on, my car it just over there" pointing to the black Holden (Australian Car Company) four-wheel drive (called an SVU in U.S.A) just around the corner.

"Okay" And with that they headed to the car.

Within another ten minutes they were outside the Cohen residence. Just before they went in Seth told Alex to "be aware that my parents aren't normal" speech. Alex remembering his parent's 20th Anniversary celebration at The Bait Shop nodded her head in reply.

Entering the Cohen household they found Ryan and Marissa making out on the couch.

"Dude" said Seth. "Find a room now. We have more than one guest here tonight."

Looking up Ryan saw that Seth was indeed right. Standing right next to Seth a little too close for friends was the one and only Alex. Looking up to see what Ryan was staring at Marissa was stunned to see Seth AND Alex looking down on the two of them.

Alex spoke up "Marissa I have moved on and no me and Seth are just good friends. Now please can you two move? I've wanted to beat Seth and Tekken 4 ever since he started talking about it."

"Unfortunately that will have to wait. Dinner is served courtesy of Seth's favourite restaurant Mc Donald's" came Kirsten's voice as she entered the kitchen with about five bags of food.

"And hello to you Alex. I've heard what's been going on these past few weeks and I was just wondering are you okay?"

"I'm fine Kirsten" she replied. "And thanks for having me over. I'm really great full to you guys."

"No problem honey. We the Cohen's are ready to help in anyway we can. See Ryan over there. He came to us after trying to steal a car and now look at him he's doing

well in his studies and has a good life. That's our goal in life. That's why Sandy's a lawyer."

"Well Alex would it be okay if I spoke with you privately for a bit after dinner?" Kirsten inquired.

"Not a problem but first, lets eat!"

Before you knew it the four teenagers were digging into their burgers, munching on their French fries and slurping down their drinks.

Within five minutes Sandy returned and gave his wife a kiss before digging in himself.

After dinner Alex went out to Kirsten's bedroom for their little chat. "So what did you want to talk to me about Kirsten?"

"Well Alex there's two. The first has to do with how my son's doing and how you're doing."

"We're both fine" Alex said lying through her teeth.

"That's the biggest lie that I have ever heard," said Sandy walking into the room.

"Now lets here the truth Alex."

"Fine then Sandy. Here's the truth though you might want to sit down for a while."

With that she told them in detail with what happened between Marissa and herself, how she almost left Newport and how Seth got cheated on.

"Wow" Kirsten said once she'd finished. "You're one tough girl!"

Suddenly, without warning Alex broke down into tears. Seeing her from outside the room Seth quickly came through the door and wrapped his arms around her protectively.

'Wow' Sandy and Kirsten thought. 'Looks as if these two might be together once again!'

Seth meanwhile had got Alex to his room and was trying to make her feel better by giving her a history of the great stuff ups of his life so far.

"You see I saw Luke there and I was shit scared" he recalled. "I didn't want to get beat up so I ran out of school as fast as I could forgetting the fact that I had a Maths test and hadn't studied one bit with my books in my locker."

Seeing Alex's smile made his day.

"You feeling any better?" he gently asked her.

"Yeah thanks to you. You're the best Seth" she happily replied.

"Well that's largely thanks to you and your work with the Bait Shop. It made me more of a man," he said proudly. "Especially when I get my 'Twin Ambassadors of Pain' up and working again"

"Yeah in like ten years" she teased.

Just then Alex remembered something important. Something real important.

"Oh no I gotta get back to The Bait Shop. It's still a normal night and I'm still working there because I'm staying in Newport. What am I gonna do!" She began pacing.

"Don't worry for the mighty Seth Cohen and Captain Oats are here!"

"While you were asleep the manager called in asking for you. I told him that you've had a rough night and deserve the night off and that you were sleeping over at my house."

"Seth" she replied, "thanks but I can just go somewhere else and besides I haven't got my clothes here"

"Never fear, Captain Oats and Seth are here!" he replied before walking out the door and returning with four suitcases labelled with the name 'Alex Kelly'.

"You'll be sleeping here so don't fret and no you can't get out of this."

"Fine then I accept" she replied.

"But where will you go then?" she inquired.

"I'll just sleep on the couch while you sleep here" he replied.

"Oh no we'll share this bed"

"You sure?" he asked

"Positive. Now ya ready to get beaten at Tekken (Playstation 2 game)?"

"You're going down!" he replied.

A few hours later they both headed for Seth's room completely exhausted. Seth had agreed to change in the bathroom to avoid any discomforts. When they were both done they got into their various sides of the bed. Seth had his Superman pyjamas on while Alex was in Roxy matching pyjamas.

Seth was extremely quiet and when he thought Alex was asleep he took down Captain Oats and whispered "Thanks Captain Oats for keeping Alex here. I promise you I'll be there for her no matter what" before drifting off to sleep.

Alex who heard every word was looking forward to Seth keeping his promises suddenly remembered when she and Marissa slept together and broke down once again.

Hearing her woke him up and Seth put an arm around her comforting her. Within another thirty seconds everyone in the Cohen household was either fast asleep or making out (Ryan and Marissa once again LOL. You know how they are LOL.).

**End of chapter 3**


	4. Movin' On

Note Kelza is a nickname given to Alex by a close friend of hers who also happens to be a close friend of Seth's. She was in season 1 briefly. Who is it you might wonder. The only way to find out is to read this chapter! Chapter Four: Movin' On 

The next few days went by really quickly with Alex staying with the Cohen's since she lost her apartment in an unfortunate fire that had completely and utterly obliterated it. She and Seth had become as close as Seth was as Ryan and she even came for some of the events Kirsten and Julie organised. Ryan and Marissa could not get enough of each other and this was really starting to tick Seth off big time. One afternoon he came in to talk about doing another comic book project (he scraped the one he was going to do with Zach and Summer for obvious reasons) when yet again he witnessed Ryan and Marissa making out on the Pool House bed. 'Bugger, do they ever stop!' he thought to himself. He went back up to his room and Alex was on his bed reading some of his Spiderman comics.

"Hey Seth" she said.

"Yeah" he replied.

"I was planning on going to that Newport Ball that Kirsten was organising and I was wondering if you could possibly be my date?" she replied cautiously (very unlike her).

"Sure. Its gonna be real good introducing you to my good friend Anna. She's a wild one too you'll like her."

_**The Newport Ball**_

Alex had done well ad had chosen a stunning Versace bottle green dress for the evening (She had help from Kirsten). Seth and the rest of the men were in traditional blue bow tie suits. Marissa and Ryan had declined coming (you know how Ryan is about these types of occasions) though Seth knew that he had to suffer with another ball then so would his now brother Ryan.

Anna had come there with another guy. She had had some good times with guys after her short stint with Seth. She really loved her current boyfriend and hoped in settling down with him within the next few years. He was an average brunette but she didn't mind. When she arrived at the dance she spotted out Seth from the crowd and dragged her boyfriend over with her.

Seeing her come over Seth was overjoyed. They had not seen each other since she left for home (Pittsburgh) a bit over a year ago. There was still something Seth didn't know.

She hugged Seth. "It's been way too long Seth" she said. Suddenly she noticed Alex. "Kelza is that really you?"

"Who do ya think Sterner" Alex replied as they hugged.

"Seth why didn't you tell me Alex/Anna was going to be here?" they said in complete unison to him.

"Well I didn't know you two knew each other so well and anyway it wouldn't have happened unless I stepped in to invite you Anna. Of course having two great friends who were both my ex's is quite nerve racking so I'll see you to tomorrow." He replied before running out of the joint as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Seth why you…" said Alex before running on after him.

Anna and her boyfriend couldn't help but chuckle in the sight of the pristine looking Alex running after Seth in a sparkling emerald dress and hi-heals.

"Seth get back here damn it!" Alex said extremely annoyed at this point. Seth in the meanwhile had run out to the near park and was listening to his iPod. "Seth did you hear me?" she screamed as she came up to him.

"Yeah I hear you" he replied. "What's wrong?"

"Did you really know beforehand that Anna was coming? If so why didn't you tell me?" she asked

"Interesting question you asked. To be honest though I had no idea you and Anna even knew each other but that's awesome. I have two great friends who happen to be best friends with each other and friends with my parents too."

"Yeah well I had no idea it was gonna be her. You sure are lucky you got to know both of us as well as you do."

"Yeah well it all comes together when you are a fantastic Cohen such as me"

"Oh really. So that's the reason why you got hit by a girl huh?" she knew what she was talking about. (See season 2 of The O.C if you don't know what I'm talking about)

"Yeah you wish!" he said as he grabbed her in a bear hug.

"Seth, let me go" she said as she squirmed against him.

"In your dreams Als!" he replied in a fit of laughter which she soon joined in on.

It was at this second that Alex realised that she **needed **Seth in her life. She **needed **him. Not wanted, **needed**. She was shocked yet not shocked at the same time. It was a weird feeling and she was determined to find out why she was feeling this way.

End chapter 4

Remember if you want to write fanfictions especially those involving Seth/Alex fanfictions remember you are more than welcome. We need to mend the gap in the lack of this beautiful couple's fanfiction on the site so if you can write a story about them even if it's just a one-shot I'd really appreciate it.

Till next time

Simon a.k.a Simoman


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